Today’s blog post was long planned to be an article about Junípero Serra, who was canonized five years ago on September 23. But then Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, and among other things, that has occasioned the re-escalation of the abortion wars.
From De-escalation to Re-escalation
On September
5, I posted “De-escalating the
Abortion Wars,” in which I contended that currently many
Catholics and conservative evangelicals are talking about a wide range of
important ethical social issues and not focusing primarily on abortion. I
thought/think that was a good sign.
But then RBG
died.
And DJT immediately
announced plans to nominate her replacement—and in complete reversal to the
stance most Republican Senators took after Justice Scalia died in February
2016, Sen. McConnell announced that the Senate would hold confirmation hearings
before the November 3 election.
Consequently,
there was quickly a re-escalation of the abortion wars.
Vilifying
RBG’s Position on Abortion
In supporting
DJT’s pledge to nominate a conservative, “pro-life” successor to Justice
Ginsburg, some of his staunch supporters began attacking RBG’s position on
abortion.
The most
abhorrent Facebook post that I saw in that regard was on Sept. 24 by a woman
who was one of my missionary colleagues in Japan—and a post that was “liked” by
another colleague and longtime personal friend.
That post
showed an image of Hitler, accompanied by the words, “Supported the murder of
11 million Jews.” Below that image was one of Ginsburg with the words,
“Supported the murder of 60 million babies.” The woman who made that post
commented with just two words: “Trump only!”
Sadly, the recently
deceased Supreme Court Justice who was so highly praised by so many people
across the country was vilified by conservative evangelicals, and others, in
ways that were untruthful, unkind, and, yes, unchristian.
Verifying
ACB’s Position on Abortion
Last Saturday
(9/26), DJT publicly announced that he was nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett
as RBG’s replacement on the SCOTUS.
The news
media and social media have had a plethora of news articles and opinion pieces
about Judge Barrett (ACB), so there is no need to duplicate information about
her here.
But I want to
focus on ACB’s position on abortion as that is partly what has re-escalated the
abortion wars this month.
Democrats and
many Independents, but perhaps only a few Republicans, are fearful that ACB’s confirmation
to the high court will likely help overturn the Affordable Care Act. She might
also help DJT win re-election, if the outcome of the Nov. 3 election is
contested, as it may well be.
Further,
since ACB is known for her “radical” proclivity to overturn laws rather than
honoring them as precedents, her position on the Court could also endanger the
right of same-sex couples to marry and the constitutional protections against
discrimination based on gender that RBG championed.
But abortion is
clearly the main reason many conservative Christians favor Judge Barrett’s confirmation
to the high court now—even though a 9/24 poll indicates that a majority of U.S.
voters think the winner of the Nov. 3 presidential election should nominate the
next Supreme Court justice.
Barrett was a top contender for the empty seat on the SCOTUS in 2018, and of all those on
DJT’s list as potential nominees, Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post called ACB
(in this 7/4/18 opinion
piece),
“The Trump Supreme Court pick who’d pose the biggest danger to abortion rights.”
I was greatly
saddened by the death of Justice Ginsburg for many reasons—and one of the main
reasons was because of her death triggering the re-escalation of the abortion
wars. What a shame!
.jpg)